Chapter 5 "Being Kind" To Save Her

Lily did not reveal herself until she saw Yasmin and Sheena leave the forest. She was right in thinking that they were just hiding, watching the beating from the shadows. Seeing that the work was done, they walked out.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Lily asked as she walked towards the three girls hitting the black cloth.

"Lily?"

"Lily!"

"You, you..."

The girls who were senselessly beating Claire now watched as Lily approached, shock apparent on their faces. They stopped kicking and stood still, speechless.

"Lily... How... How could you..." one of the girls recovered first and stammered.

"What's really going on here?" Lily blinked and continued innocently, "Yasmin and Sheena asked me to come here." She smiled.

"They asked you to come here..." Another of the girls realized what just happened. "Then, who's that?!" she asked, pointing in horror at the person they had just beaten to a pulp. They could still hear her howling in pain.

Looking at the black cloth, Lily shouted, "Ah, Claire!"

She then squatted down and lifted the cloth to help Claire stand up.

"Claire! Oh no... are you all right?" Claire's face was swollen, with black and blue bruises all over. Lily turned to the three girls and glared at them. "Why would you do this?! How dare you hit your own schoolmate! Not only did you hurt Claire, but this is also a violation of the school's rules!"

The three girls were shocked. Not because they were scared of Lily, but because they just realized they beat the wrong person!

It was supposed to be Lily under that black cloth. Now, not only did they hurt the wrong person, but of all people, they hit Claire! They realized that they would be in a lot of trouble.

"Ouch, ouch..." Claire cried out in pain as Lily helped her. She was distressed and confused, and still had no idea what was going on.

"Are you all right? Where does it hurt?" Lily checked her half-sister's disheveled state. "Let me take you to the infirmary."

"No. No way!" Claire refused. Feeling pain, she gritted her teeth and gave the three girls a sharp look. Then she turned to Lily and said, "Call Uncle Tom to pick us up at the back gates of the school."

The girls who did the beating could only lower their heads. Nothing they could say would pass as an explanation.

"All right." Lily knew that Claire wouldn't want people to see her in such a disgraced state, so she called Tom as Claire asked.

After that, she helped Claire limp towards the back of the school to wait for their driver. Her pained half-sister couldn't help but give glaring looks at the three girls, who were now left confused as to what to do next.

The car arrived and they got in, only to see that Eden was already there.

"What's wrong with Miss Claire? What happened to her?" Tom asked, concerned.

"She was..." "It's nothing, just an accident. I just fell." Claire interrupted before Lily could explain. "Just drive."

Lily thought that no one would buy that. Falling down wouldn't cause black and blue bruises all over one's face.

"How could falling cause this?" Eden, who was almost always silent, asked. His forehead wrinkled, obviously unbelieving.

Claire took a pained breath and looked at him angrily. "Eden, can you just shut up?"

Eden did. It was not that he wasn't concerned enough about his sister. It was just that, given Claire's personality, it wouldn't be good to upset her further.

Soon, they arrived home. The moment they got out of the car, a loud scream covered the whole courtyard.

"Claire! What happened to you?" Lucia looked at her daughter in shock. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Mom..." Claire looked at her mother, ashamed. She put one hand on her waist and covered her face with the other. "Let's go inside. This is so embarrassing."

"Okay, inside the house. Come on." Lucia helped Claire into the house and said, "Gina, call Dr. Song and then Mr. Dillon. Ask them to come as soon as possible."

"Yes, Mrs. Lucia." Gina took her orders and left.

The others also left, leaving Lily and Eden in the courtyard. Lily didn't feel the need to explain, while Eden's face was as blank as usual.

After one quick glance towards each other, Eden turned around and walked away without saying a word.

Lily smiled as he watched her half-brother leave. Although Eden did nothing to hurt her in the previous life, it did not necessarily mean that he was a good person.

She headed towards the house. She thought it was necessary to "care" and be "concerned" about Claire, even if it was just for show. So she went to her half-sister's room.

Just as she was about to enter, she overheard Lucia and her daughter talking.

"That bitch must have something to do with it." Lucia was cleaning the wound on Claire's face, and she said in a ruffled voice, "How could it be a mere coincidence? She was there at the moment to help, after something really bad happened? Do you really think that she is that kind?!"

"Wow, Mom, be gentle." Claire cried. She recalled all the incidents that happened during the day and said, "Now I understand. No wonder she was trying to get on my good side all day..."

"I have nothing to do with it." Lily came in to face the mother and daughter, tears in their eyes. "I had no idea you were going to the bamboo grove. I went there because York and Sheena asked me to. I didn't expect to see my sister being beaten within an inch of her life!"

"Why should we believe you? Who knows if you're part of this or not? For all we know, you could just be pretending to be innocent, but you planned for them to beat Claire all along!" said Lucia in an accusing tone.

"I didn't!" Lily put on a grieving look, her eyes watering. It looked as if she could cry any time now.

At that moment, they heard hurried footsteps. "Is Claire hurt?" Dillon's voice called out. "What's going on?"

"You wanna know what happened? Your daughter got beaten up because of that bitch!" Lucia said, furious.

Dillon turned to look at Lily and said, "Lily, is it true? How could you do that? Claire is your sister! "

Lily's heart was sneering, almost mocking them, but she maintained the grieving look on her face. She blinked, and tears started to fall down from her eyes. "I have nothing to do with this! Why doesn't anyone believe me? And you, too, Dad? Really? Why do you come here already believing I did it?"

"How dare you say that?" Lucia didn't give in. She told Dillon everything. Of course, most of her story were just fabricated, just her own version of the events.

"Aunt Lucia, if you don't believe me, then you can ask Yasmin and Sheena." Lily sniffed. With red eyes, she looked at Claire this time and asked, "Why did you go to the bamboo forest? Why didn't you tell me that you were even planning to go there?"

Claire had to admit to herself that Lily's question was indeed puzzling. She never told Lily about her trip to the bamboo forest. Only Yasmin and Sheena knew that. She was also beaten by three girls who she knew to be Yasmin and Sheena's followers.

Suddenly, she realized that they switched clothes. She went to the bamboo forest wearing Lily's clothes!

Anyone with a discerning eye could easily see what really happened from Claire's reaction. Dillon looked at Lucia with displeasure. "Don't just mouth off if you don't know what actually happened. How could Lily do such a thing?"

"Why, is it really impossible? She... "

"Mom," Claire interrupted Lucia. "Let it go. Please, just see if Dr. Song is here. I'm in a lot of pain."

"Gina! Call Dr. Song again!" Lucia shouted at the top of her lungs. Then, she stood up. "It's probably better if I call."

The room became quiet after Lucia left. Dillon asked about Claire's injuries, but she remained impatient. She answered in quick bursts, almost absent-minded. Her mind was off, thinking about everything that happened that day. She got annoyed when she saw that Lily was still standing there. Claire waved at her dismissively, motioning for her to leave.

Lily was actually glad for that, and she took that opportunity to return to her room. Only a fool would stay.

.

Claire did not want anyone to see her injured, but she still went to school because of the exams. She wore a mask to cover the bruises on her face and her eyes.

As soon as her first test was done, she managed to confront Sheena and Yasmin at one corner of the school.

Yasmin, who was relatively taller, did not find anything different about Claire. She asked, "Why didn't you go to the bamboo forest yesterday? We were going to invite you to watch a good show, but you never showed up."

"Wow! Claire, what happened to you?" It was Sheena who recognized the scars and bruises on Claire's face.

"What's happened? This is all because of you!" Claire glared angrily and hit both of them, hoping to knock their heads off.

"Claire, stop! What's going on?" Yasmin shouted as she covered her head with her hands.

Sheena did the same and said, "Why did you hit us!"

"As if you needed a reason?" Claire raised her voice and said, "Have you asked your followers what they just did to me? Didn't they check who it was before they started kicking?"

"What?" At that moment, Sheena and Yasmin understood. Their mouths dropped open, realizing their mistake.

"What? How could this happen?" Yasmin was confused.

"This is all your fault. Were your stupid followers blind?" Claire told them everything that happened and asked, "So where were you yesterday? I cried so loudly. You should've recognized my voice. but you never came out."

The two were embarrassed. They looked at each other, and then Yasmin spoke. "We didn't expect that you would show up in Lily's clothes! We thought you might be busy and you couldn't come, so we left before it was finished..."

Her voice was getting lower, obviously ashamed of what she had done.

"Fools!" Claire scolded. She wanted to kick them, but because her whole body was aching, she could only scream at them.

"I'm sorry, Claire. We didn't expect this." "If you're really mad, then you can hurt us and beat us the same way," Sheena added.

Claire glared at her. "If I wasn't in pain, I already would have!"

"We're really sorry. We'll make sure that Lily will pay for this. Don't worry, we'll get her for you next time!" Yasmin promised.

"There will be no 'next time' for you two. I don't need your stupid help." Claire looked at them with sheer anger. This definitely was Lily's fault as well, and she vowed that her half-sister would feel the pain, so much more than what she had suffered. She couldn't just let this slip!